Category: Poverty & income gap
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Expand Free Clinics, Not Medicaid
by James A. Bacon So, what’s the alternative to expanding Virginia’s Medicaid program? Let an estimated 400,000 Virginians continue without health insurance? That option was workable in the past because the federal government gave financial aid to hospitals to help offset some of the cost of providing health care to indigent patients. But the Affordable…
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About those Henrico School Disparities, Part Deux
by James A. Bacon In my never-ending quest to bring to you, the readers of Bacon’s Rebellion, a keener insight into the dynamics of Virginia’s educational system, I present the chart above, which shows the correlation between average teacher salaries at Henrico County schools and the percentage of children on free or reduced lunch. Why…
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Teen Pregnancies Down, Way Down
Here’s the best news you’re likely to read all day, maybe all week: Mirroring national trends, the number of teen pregnancies in the City of Richmond has dropped from 1,024 a decade ago to 487 in 2012. The 2012 numbers represented “the lowest teen pregnancy rate in Richmond in decades,” Dr. Donald Stern, Richmond City Health…
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Mobility and the Metropolis
If you were born poor in Hampton Roads, you have better odds of rising out of poverty than if you were born into a low-income family in the Washington metro area. Economic segregation varies widely across metro regions in the United States, and so does economic mobility, argues a report published by the Pew Charitable…
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Parks, Recreation and Racial Bean Counting
bv James A. Bacon Virginia’s recreational assets include 33,610 picnic tables, 5,740 miles of hiking trails, 2,671 basketball courts and 695 outdoor pools. Walking for pleasure is the favorite outdoor recreational activity of Virginians, followed by visiting historic sites and visiting natural areas and nature preserves. Those are among the fascinating tidbits of information contained…
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About those Henrico School Disparities…
by James A. Bacon It now seems to be the received wisdom that high turn-out by African-Americans in the East End of Henrico County was the decisive factor that won approval for the 4% meals tax. African-Americans bore a slew of grievances regarding the under-performance of East End schools and racial disparities in the disciplining…
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An Electrifying Plan for Shockoe Bottom
by James A. Bacon Mayor Dwight C. Jones unveiled this morning a $200 million public-private project to build a new baseball stadium and spark revitalization of a neglected corner of Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom district. The project includes 750 apartments, a Kroger grocery store, a 200-room Hyatt Hotel, a parking deck and a slavery memorial. The…
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Thank God It’s Over: Seven Election Takeaways
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, LGBQT, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The awful Virginia gubernatorial contest is over. Utter disaster has been averted with the defeat of strident rightwinger Kenneth Cuccinelli. Here are seven takeaways from Election Day: 1. Winner Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, now gets to deal with a contentious General Assembly where the GOP maintains firm control on the House of…
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Pitching the Meals Tax to Minorities and the Poor
by James A. Bacon I guess the “it’s for the sweet little children” mantra isn’t working. Proponents of the Henrico County meals tax have upped the ante. Now a pro-tax advocacy group, Yes 4 Henrico’s Kids, is appealing to class and racial resentments of residents in the east end of the county, who are more…
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An Inquiry into the Origins of Social Disorder
by James A. Bacon The conventional wisdom in housing-reform circles these days emphasizes the need to bust up concentrations of poverty. When Mayor Dwight Jones recently explained his thinking behind Richmond’s latest plans to inject mixed-income housing into the City of Richmond’s desolate East End, he said he wanted to change the culture of poverty. Poor people…
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The Folly of Expanding Medicaid
by James A. Bacon As Richmond lawmakers ponder whether or not to expand Virginia’s Medicaid program, the center-left Commonwealth Institute has made another pitch for the program. Their paper, “Medicaid is Far from Broken,” creates plausible talking points to bolster anyone inclined to accept the federal government’s offer to cover the vast majority of the…
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Mayor Jones’ Ambitious Plan to Bust up Poverty
by James A. Bacon The City of Richmond is embarking upon the boldest experiment in a generation to tackle entrenched, multi-generational poverty in the Richmond region. With the hoped-for assistance of $30 million in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds, city officials are planning to blaze a path of mixed-income re-development through the city’s east…
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Virginia’s Medicaid Travesty
By Peter Galuszka Some things never seem to change in the South and in Virginia, namely the idea among conservatives that the poor, notably African-Americans, are not worthy of help. Such is the predicament faced Virginia and other states that have not expanded the federal Medicaid program to help the poor with health insurance just…
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IG of the Day: Income Equality by Metro Region
This map, published by Richard Morrill in New Geography, shows the GINI coefficient, a measure of income inequality, for the nation’s major metro areas. Regions with low GINI numbers, shown in blue, have the least unequal incomes. Note how the three Virginia metros — including Washington, Richmond and Hampton Roads — create a big patch…
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The Cooch and the Pope
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Federal issues, Gun rights, Immigration, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka “It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” says Pope Francis, leader of the globe’s Roman Catholics, regarding abortion, gays and contraception. One wonders if Ken Cuccinelli gets the message. Or maybe even Bob McDonnell. The attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate and the sitting governor have worn…